13/12/07

Iraq’s Youthful Militiamen Build Power Through Fear
Schoolgirls Told to Wear Scarves, Under Threat of Death
Sudarsan Raghavan, Washington Post Foreign Service
On the first day of class, two male teenagers entered a girls’ high school in the Tobji neighborhood, clutching AK-47 assault rifles. The young Shiite fighters handed the principal a handwritten note and ordered her to assemble the students in the courtyard, witnesses said. “All girls must wear hijab,” she read aloud, her voice trembling. “If the girls don’t wear hijab, we will close the school or kill the girls.” That October day Sara Mustafa, 14, a secular Sunni Arab, also trembled. The next morning, she covered up with an Islamic head scarf for the first time. The young fighters now controlled her life. “We could not do anything,” Sara recalled. The Mahdi Army of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr is using a new generation of youths, some as young as 15, to expand and tighten its grip across Baghdad, but the ruthlessness of some of these young fighters is alienating Sunnis and Shiites alike….

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Mobile Labs to Target Iraqis for Death
Robert Parry
U.S. forces in Iraq soon will be equipped with high-tech equipment that will let them process an Iraqi’s biometric data in minutes and help American soldiers decide whether they should execute the person or not, according to its inventor “A war fighter needs to know one of three things: Do I let him go? Keep him? Or shoot him on the spot?” Pentagon weapons designer Anh Duong told the Washington Post for a feature on how this 47-year-old former Vietnamese refugee and mother of four rose to become a top U.S. bomb-maker. Though Duong is best known for designing high-explosives used to destroy hardened targets, she also supervised the Joint Expeditionary Forensics Facilities project, known as a “lab in a box” for analyzing biometric data, such as iris scans and fingerprints, that have been collected on more than one million Iraqis….

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Bethlehem’s Walled Nativity
IslamOnline.net
At first glance, Tawfiq Salsaa’s wooden nativity scene seems like the perfect gift from Bethlehem, Christ’s birthplace. But a closer look shows a wall separating baby Jesus and Virgin Marry from the three wise men. “I was inspired by our own wall,” the Palestinian carpenter, 65, told Reuters on Thursday, December 13. “I wanted to give the world an idea of how we live in the Holy Land,” added Salsaa as he sat in his small workshop surrounded by wooden carvings…

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The occupied Palestinian territories: Dignity Denied
International Committee of the Red Cross
Throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, in the Gaza Strip as well as in the West Bank, Palestinians continuously face hardship in simply going about their lives; they are prevented from doing what makes up the daily fabric of most people’s existence. The Palestinian territories face a deep human crisis, where millions of people are denied their human dignity. Not once in a while, but every day. Nothing is predictable for Palestinians. Rules can change from one day to the next without notice or explanation. They live in an arbitrary environment, continuously adapting to circumstances they cannot influence and that increasingly reduce the range of their possibilities….

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Egypt and Saudi Arabia make new overtures to Iran
Are US Arab allies playing ‘good cop’ with Ahmadinejad to US ‘bad cop’?
Dan Murphy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Iran is suddenly enjoying a thaw with its Arab neighbors – all close US allies – in the wake of a US intelligence report that judged Iran probably suspended its work on nuclear weapons four years ago. Regional actors, in particular, are scrambling to engage Iran diplomatically, and analysts say they have the tacit approval of the Americans. Egypt, a US ally and the only Arab state not to have full diplomatic relations with Iran, this week sent a high-level delegation to Tehran for the first time since that country’s Islamic revolution in 1979. On Thursday, Russia said it would resume work on an Iranian civilian nuclear plant.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad was invited by the Qatari emir to speak to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) earlier this month – the first time that has ever happened. On Wednesday, Iran announced that Saudi Arabia had invited Mr. Ahmedinejad to participate in the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, a first for an Iranian leader since the 1979 revolution….

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Harsh reality of Iraqi orphans
Voices of Iraq
Nadira Habib, a member of the Committee on Family and Childhood Affairs in the Iraqi parliament, indicated that the situation requires wise handling.
“Iraqi orphans are increasing everyday because of the constant wars that the country has been going through,” Habib explained, citing an estimated three to four million Iraqi orphans according to figures released by the Ministry of Planning and Development Cooperation. Highlighting the importance of small loans to poor people, particularly those who lost their breadwinners, Habib said that only 469 orphans are currently sponsored by the government. Maysoun al-Damlouji, a member of the parliament’s Civil Society Organizations Committee, slammed a recent government decision that closed down all private orphanages. “Instead of helping private institutions improve their performance and remove all obstacles hindering their work, the Iraqi government decided to close them down, adding to the complexity of the situation in the state-run institutions…

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The only option
Khaled Amayreh, Al-Ahram Weekly
Palestinian national unity was broken following the mid-June bloody showdown between Hamas and Fatah, which ended with Hamas defeating Fatah and taking over the Gaza Strip. This week, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal met with top Saudi officials and updated them on the latest efforts to end the rift between. According to Hamas officials in Gaza, Meshaal presented to the Saudi leadership “a comprehensive package of proposals” that would rectify the current state of division. The proposals include a willingness on Hamas’s part to hand over “security headquarters” and “a number of civilian ministries” in the Gaza Strip to Fatah, which would be followed by the creation of a national unity government based on the Saudi-mediated Mecca Accord as well as the National Reconciliation Document…

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73,000 Dead U.S. Troops In Iraq Story a Complete Hoax
Websites pushing deliberate dsinformation harmful to serious researchers
Paul Joseph Watson, Prison Planet
All but the most naive would accept that U.S. casualty figues in Iraq, both dead and injured, are being deliberately underreported, but a story circulating that 73,000 have died is a complete hoax and its advocates are disseminating harmful disinformation. The worst of the bunch is probably this website, which claims that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs issued a report “confirming 73,000 U.S. troops killed in Iraq.” If you actually read the report it becomes clear that the figure represents how many veterans, whether retired or active duty, have died since the first Gulf War in 1990 – from any cause and not solely as a result of fighting in Iraq. The figure is merely a rough head count of how many veterans are still living compared to those that have died since 1990….

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PNGO: Palestinian Delegation Withdraws from Madrid Just Peace Forum
International Solidarity Movement
The Palestinian civil society delegation to the Forum for a Just Peace in the Middle East, planned for December 14 to 16 in Madrid, has decided not to participate in the Forum due to serious last-minute violations. Coordinators of the delegation, which was to be led by the Palestinian NGO Network (PNGO), learned last night that due to unprecedented pressure from the Israeli establishment, a substantial Israeli delegation (different from the progressive civil society Israeli delegation led by the Alternative Information Center, AIC, scheduled to participate in the Forum) was undemocratically and underhandedly “invited” to participate in the Forum without endorsing the Forum’s Reference Document. This is not only a significant breach of the key rule of participation; it is a contravention of the express will of the overwhelming majority of the International Committee, the decision-making steering committee of the conference…

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Another KBR Rape Claim Brings Scrutiny
Justin Rood ,ABC news
Congress is asking questions about another ex-employee of government contracting firm KBR who claims she was raped in Iraq. Letters to the Pentagon and the Justice Department today from Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. underscore congressional concern about a second alleged assault, this time of a woman from Florida who reportedly worked for a KBR subsidiary in Ramadi, Iraq in 2005. “I am deeply troubled by recent reports that at least two women who worked in Iraq under contractors for the Department of Defense were sexually assaulted by male coworkers,” Nelson wrote Defense Secretary Robert Gates Thursday….

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IRAQ: Not Even the Hajj is Free of Corruption
Ali al-Fadhily*
Many Iraqis are angry that the government seems to be picking favourites for the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslims are obliged to carry out the pilgrimage, as long as they are able-bodied and can afford to, at least once in their lifetime. Saudi Arabia, where the holy site of Mecca is located, limits the number of pilgrims to one in every 1,000 people of the total population of each Islamic country. The quota for Iraq for the last four years was agreed at 28,000 pilgrims. Iraqis who want to go on the pilgrimage say officials have issued approvals only for relatives and party members. The Iraqi government led by U.S.-appointed Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is Shia dominated, and many Iraqis say selection for the pilgrimage is sectarian….

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GI Special 5L10: The Soldiers’ Truce [ December 14, 2007 ]
Thomas F. Barton
The Christmas Truce, which occurred primarily between the British and German soldiers along the Western Front in December 1914, is an event the official histories of the “Great War” leave out, and the Orwellian historians hide from the public.
Stanley Weintraub has broken through this barrier of silence and written a moving account of this significant event by compiling letters sent home from the front, as well as diaries of the soldiers involved. His book is entitled Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce. The book contains many pictures of the actual events showing the opposing forces mixing and celebrating together that first Christmas of the war.

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Iraq’s Maverick Cleric Hits the Books
HAMZA HENDAWI and QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
The leader of Iraq’s biggest Shiite militia movement has quietly resumed seminary studies toward attaining the title of ayatollah — a goal that could make firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army an even more formidable power broker in Iraq. Al-Sadr’s objectives — described to The Associated Press by close aides — are part of increasingly bitter Shiite-on-Shiite battles for control of Iraq’s southern oil fields, the lucrative pilgrim trade to Shiite holy cities and the nation’s strategic Persian Gulf outlet….

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Weekly Report: On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory No. 49/2007 ( 06 – 12 Dec. 2007 )
PCHR – Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)
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• 8 Palestinians, including 3 civilians, were killed by IOF in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
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• 5 of the victims were killed by IOF during an offensive against the southern Gaza Strip.
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• 12 Palestinians were wounded by the IOF gunfire in the Gaza Strip, and 9 persons, including 5 journalists and an Israeli human rights defender, sustained bruises in the West Bank.
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• IOF conducted 22 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, invaded the south of the Gaza Strip and moved into its north
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• IOF arrested 28 Palestinian civilians, including 4 children, in the West Bank and one in the Gaza Strip.
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CIA Torture Jet wrecks with 4 Tons of COCAINE
Daily Kos
This Florida based Gulfstream II jet aircraft # N987SA crash landed on September 24, 2007 after it ran out of fuel over Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula it had a cargo of several tons of Cocaine on board now documents have turned up on both sides of the Atlantic that link this Cocaine Smuggling Gulfstream II jet aircraft # N987SA that crashed in Mexico to the CIA who used it on at least 3 rendition flights from Europe and the USA to Guantanamo’s infamous torture chambers between 2003 to 2005…

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More Media Disinformation? FCC Proposes Greater Media Consolidation
Stephen Lendman
On October 17, FCC chairman Kevin Martin proposed lifting the 1975 media cross-ownership rule that forbids a company from owning a newspaper and television or radio station in the same city even though giant conglomerates like Rupert Murdock’s News Corp. and the (Chicago) Tribune Company already do. On November 13, he expanded on his earlier plan claiming changes will only allow cross ownership “in the largest markets where there exists competition and numerous voices.”..

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Israeli Curfew: Doctor Denied Access to Patient
Sabbah’s blog
Here is a new example of how inhuman is the Israeli Terrorist Forces

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APS – The Conference of Basra Tribes
Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI)
…It is not strange for the tribes of Southern Iraq to announce its refusal to the occupation and its failure projects. The former people from these tribes were full of honorable attitudes against the foreigners. It is also not strange to be tied into Iraq’s unity and to reject all disgusting plans and partition. They had led the failure of many plans of the similar kinds before. The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq (AMSI) is welcoming the conference of Arab tribes which was held on last Sunday in Basrah city. The conference had contained many decisions which are considered as all honored Iraqis agreement. One of these best decisions is calling to be Iraq the country of all and requesting the withdrawal of occupation forces according to a time program and rejecting partition Iraq…

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Two more patients die in Gaza from Israeli border closure
Nisreen Qumsieh – IMEMC News
Medical sources reported on Thursday that two more patients have died in Gaza due to Israel’s refusal to allow them to leave the strip for medical treatment. Sources stated that Naser Muhra from Qabatiya, northern Gaza and Mahmoud Abu Hasna from Al Bureij reufugee camp, joined the growing list of Gazans who have died as a result of not being allowed leave the strip for treatment. The total numbers who have died from long suffering illnesses in this manner now stands at 36 since Israels total closure of the Gazan borders….

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December 12, 2007 : 72 Iraqis Killed, 177 Wounded
Margaret Griffis, Antiwar.com
A large triple bombing killed or wounded scores of people in the southern city of Amarah. Meanwhile a smaller blast in Baghdad left over a dozen casualties there. Overall, 72 Iraqis were killed and 177 more were wounded in the latest violence. No Coalition deaths were reported. As many as 41 people were killed and another 150 were wounded during a triple car bombing in Amarah. Although small arms attacks against civilians have been increasing in recent weeks throughout Maysan province, the news of a triple bombing in Amarah stunned Iraq this morning. The area had been relatively peaceful since the British handed over control to Iraqi forces in April. British forces promise that an expected handover of neighboring Basra province will go on schedule this Sunday despite the bombing…

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New Evidence That Hayden Lied: Former Prisoner Claims His Torture Was Taped In 2003
Think Progress
Earlier this week, ThinkProgress raised the issue of whether CIA Director Michael Hayden is lying when he claims that “videotaping stopped in 2002.” The New York Times reported that former prisoner Muhammad Bashmilah, who claims “he was held by the C.I.A.,” said he “saw cameras in interrogation rooms after 2002.” Since then, more evidence has emerged that videotaped interrogations were occurring after 2002. The Chicago Tribune reports that in Feb. 2003, the CIA abducted a man named Abu Omar and rendered him to Egypt. The prisoner, who is now living in Alexandria, Egypt, said he could hear interrogators recording “the sounds of my torture and my cries”…

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